Rio Ferdinand--Five Star--The Biography (17 page)

The spin-offs from Rio’s expected transfer to Man United were enormous, even though the deal wasn’t yet officially complete. Agents from all over Europe were
knocking at Leeds’ door offering their clients for cut-price deals, though one agent, Fernando Hidalgo, made it clear: ‘But it all depends on whether Ferdinand’s transfer to Man United goes ahead.’

Then Lee Bowyer’s proposed £7 million move from Leeds to Liverpool collapsed despite newspaper photos of Bowyer smiling with Gérard Houllier. Bowyer’s reported attitude was said to be the stumbling block. There were also legal problems following that earlier, controversial trial. It was announced that civil proceedings had been launched against Bowyer for lawyers acting for the family of the Asian youth injured in the attack. Proceedings were issued in the High Court in London seeking damages for assault, battery, conspiracy to injure and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The Leeds soap opera rolled on.

By 20 July there was total deadlock between Leeds and Man United over Rio’s value. Ridsdale was said to have rejected an improved offer of £30 million. In the middle of all this, David O’Leary – Rio’s old manager at Elland Road – was rumoured to be joining Juventus as right-hand man to Marcello Lippi. O’Leary was highly rated in Italy after Leeds’ successful run in the final stages of the 2001 Champions League.

On that same day, Rio was scheduled to join his Leeds teammates on a flight to the Far East, although his involvement in the trip was in doubt because of rumours that Man United were about to complete his transfer. Peter Ridsdale still insisted: ‘I have had one conversation with Manchester United but it did not move the situation on any further. We have still to receive a bid of a level that we would find acceptable.’

When Rio didn’t make the flight to the Far East it was even more clear that his days at Leeds were numbered.

O
n Monday, 23 July Rio completed his move to Manchester United for an astounding £33 million. Sir Alex Ferguson had finally got his man and Leeds had got a healthy profit of £16 million over just 18 months. Rio – now on a new wage packet of more than £60,000 a week – announced the transfer at a packed Old Trafford press conference and cited the ambition of Man United’s England stars to win more medals as a major factor in his decision to move. ‘I’ve seen the boys with England and they are as hungry as ever,’ he explained. ‘They said it’s like they have not won a championship yet and they want to do so again. When you are with England the United boys stay after training and work on little things. They are the players that are at the top and that is something I want to have. To be able to say I have played alongside the best and the hungriest players around is important to me.’

Rio admitted to the assembled press pack that he knew his move was a bold step – especially because of the fierce rivalry between the two teams. ‘I made a decision to come here, as I thought it was a step on the way to improving me as a player. It wasn’t an easy decision. I spoke to my family about loyalty. But at the end of the day, it is a short career and opportunities like this don’t come around all the time.’

Sir Alex Ferguson even revealed to the press conference how he’d tried to sign Rio when he was a teenager on loan to Bournemouth from West Ham. He conceded that it would have saved the club a fortune if he’d got his man all those years earlier.

Also at the press conference on that day was Rio’s girlfriend Rebecca Ellison, his mum and young sister. It was Rebecca’s first real taste of the public spotlight as the lover of the world’s most expensive defender. She looked calm and serene throughout the media gathering and made a point of watching proceedings from the back of the hall at Old Trafford. Then the couple went off house hunting in Cheshire’s stockbroker belt. Back in Yorkshire, where Rebecca had been living with Rio for the previous nine months, a neighbour said: ‘Rebecca is a lovely, friendly girl. She is very ordinary – and I mean that as a compliment.’

Rio’s mates in south-east London were all asking the same question: ‘Rebecca who?’ As his pal Leon Simms explained: ‘We never heard nothin’ ’bout her ’cause Rio never brought her on the manor. But, hey man, that’s cool. She’s his little lady and that’s fine by us.’

At Leeds there were rumours that ex-Man United star Jaap Stam was being lined up to replace Rio. Chairman Peter Ridsdale confirmed some of the money from Rio’s transfer would go towards purchasing new players. New manager Terry Venables was also reported to be interested in AC
Milan’s Brazilian World Cup winner Roque Junior as well as Valencia’s talented Argentinian Roberto Ayala.

The following day the Ferdinand clan got further good news when 17-year-old Anton was offered a three-year professional contract by West Ham manager Glenn Roeder, who said: ‘I have always felt that Anton would develop more slowly than his brother, but he has improved significantly since last Christmas. My intention now is to get him into the reserve team as soon as possible because he needs to be playing against more experienced opponents. That’s the only way he will learn. But he will also be available to play in our most important youth games.’

Anton’s first taste of senior football occurred when he played in the Hammers’ pre-season friendly against Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road just a week before signing the new contract. Anton was just as modest as Rio when it came to assessing his future: ‘It was a great experience for me and hopefully I showed the manager a little of what I can do. Rio’s success gives me something to aim at. He’s set the standard for me. I’ve seen what he’s got from football and I’d like some of that, too. I want what he’s achieved but I know it will take a lot of hard work.’

In Manchester, more behind-the-scenes stories about the ‘deal of the year’ were unfolding. One important aspect for Man United – besides Rio’s obvious skills – was his nationality. Old Trafford chief executive Peter Kenyon explained: ‘Rio’s nationality is important because the backbone of our team is built on English players. There are more wet, cold days than there are hot, sunny ones and British players know what to expect. We have always said we want to keep the core of our team English. We know their international commitments and they are not going to suddenly depart on long-haul flights around the world every
five weeks. These things are disruptive, irrespective of skill. The team spirit thing has worked for us. The Premier League is a tough league and in some respects is unique. It is not going to take Rio three months to acclimatise.’

So, while most of Europe was facing a slump in soccer finances, Man United continued to add to their enormous turnover. Since the Bosman Ruling in December 1996, wages in football had grown annually by an astounding 30 per cent, a trend that only started to slow down in the summer of 2002. Yet even now only half of United’s turnover was spent on wages, an almost uniquely low figure among Champions League teams. ‘I think the financial lessons of football are tough,’ added Kenyon. ‘The top players will always command top wages and transfers. Wage controls and wage restraint are up to each individual club to decide.’

Kenyon also explained: ‘Any business has got to use its strengths and ours is that we have little debt. There is a fallacy that just because you are a plc you can’t invest in players. We do because that is our core activity. But we are never going to bust this club in search of a player. We knew that Rio was one of the best centre-halves knocking around, certainly there were no others like him at that age and we think this will represent a fantastic investment.’

Typically, Sir Alex Ferguson was more concerned with his failure to win a trophy for the first time in four years than any of the financial aspects of the Rio transfer. ‘It is important to remember that, despite what some people think, we have every right to improve ourselves. We have the right to be best of the best. There is nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t matter what your view of Manchester United is. There is a thirst among the players and there was disappointment here last season. We hope to make amends for that.’

But he did admit that a ‘tricky transfer’ deal had been made easier by Leeds’ obvious need to reduce their debts. ‘Leeds are a big club, big rivals to us and Ferdinand had four years left on his contract. These were massive hurdles but we were always hopeful because of Leeds United’s financial position and because Rio wanted to come here.’

And Ferguson’s take on Rio was typical of the man. ‘Improvement is the key word here,’ he said. ‘He is 23 years of age and we are confident he will mature and develop into one of the best centre-halves in the world. His ability on the ball has been there to see since he was a kid. To understand the fee, you have to look at his age, his nationality, his position and potential. Then the rest is easy.’

The transfer of Rio to Manchester United turned the spotlight once again on his Tel Aviv-based agent Pini Zahavi. Behind the scenes he was considered one of the most influential figures in the game, part of an international network which connected many of football’s biggest movers and shakers. The close association between Rio and Zahavi had already once been richly rewarded when Rio was sold to Leeds for £18 million and Zahavi pocketed at least £1 million in fees. Now the pair had made an even bigger fortune thanks to the immense wealth of Man United.

In the middle of all the delicate negotiations between Leeds and Man United, Zahavi had deliberately turned up the heat by telling journalists: ‘Rio needs to move to a bigger and better club.’ It was an indisputable statement of fact yet only the obtuse would have not weighed up the effect it might have on Leeds fans. It also seemed the seeds of this transfer saga were sewn long before United’s failure to win the Premiership.

But not everyone was impressed by Rio’s move. The
Daily Mirror
published a ‘fascinating’ comparison between what Rio said when he left West Ham on 27 November 2000 and what he said on leaving Leeds on 22 July 2002. Headlined ‘NEW CLUB … SAME OLD CLAPTRAP’, it read:

‘I never wanted to leave West Ham. I have said that all along, but once they accepted the fee then it was up to me. Now I am at a club where I can realise all my ambitions of winning medals and playing in Europe.’

and:

‘I’m leaving a great club in Leeds, but I made a decision to come here as I thought it was a step on the way to improving me as a player. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think I was going to win top honours in the game.’

But among the managers of many of Man United’s rivals there was a sneaking admiration for the way the Old Trafford team had finally pulled off the transfer because Rio would have been top of every coach’s shopping list – if they had the funds available.

Gérard Houllier was full of praise for Rio in the days following his world-record transfer. The Liverpool boss said: ‘I wasn’t surprised what United paid for Rio Ferdinand when you consider their turnover. In football what appears expensive today sometimes seems to be cheap tomorrow. When the player is quality the price is always right. At the World Cup, Rio showed he had something special. I think if United had had Rio last year they could have won the Champions League.’

In the weeks following Rio’s transfer to Man United it became clear that the huge fee involved was unlikely to be matched in the foreseeable future. Everyone in the Premiership and throughout Europe was looking to trim squads, not buy new players.

European champions Real Madrid made half their first-team squad available for transfer, although they did buy Ronaldo in late August 2002 (for approximately £30 million) after protracted negotiations with Inter Milan which included the agreement of a bizarre instalments deal. Former Liverpool ace Steve McManaman was reportedly available for nothing just so that the club could get rid of his astronomical wages and there were rumours he might go to Inter as part of the Ronaldo deal when the transfer window reopened in December 2002.

In Italy, the financial situation at clubs such as Roma and Lazio was so serious that the start of the Serie A season had to be postponed for two weeks. A drop in TV revenues in Germany, Italy and Spain meant that many top clubs were in serious trouble.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, Peter Ridsdale let it be known that, fine player though he might be, Rio would not be missed at Elland Road. The Leeds chairman insisted that the club only bought Rio in the first place because of the uncertainly and possible prison sentence hanging over Jonathan Woodgate following the assault on Sarfraz Najeib. Ridsdale described Rio as nothing more than a stopgap for Leeds. A man keeping another player’s seat warm.

He even suggested that Leeds ended up using Rio rather than the other way round. Ridsdale was careful not to criticise Rio personally but found it difficult to hide his anger at Rio’s alleged conduct during the protracted negotiations with Man United. He insisted that, when he first received an approach for Rio from Man United’s Peter Kenyon, he was resolved not to sell Leeds’ star player. ‘All the speculation started after that but I can assure you that speculation was not prompted by Leeds United,’ he told one
journalist. ‘I’ll leave it up to you to decide who started it.’

Ridsdale claimed he met Rio when he came back from the World Cup on the Monday before he went off on holiday and he told Ridsdale he wanted to leave the club. Rio has never confirmed or denied this meeting took place. Ridsdale added: ‘That, by the way, was the very same day he put his name to an article in a national newspaper saying he wanted to stay.’

In addition, Ridsdale insisted that when Rio got back from his holiday in Las Vegas, he then put in a written transfer request saying not just that he wanted to leave Leeds but that he specifically wanted to join Man United. The chairman explained: ‘At that point we had not received an offer from them that we considered even close to being viable so it was all a bit puzzling. But when the offer went up to £33 million, an offer which I don’t believe will be repeated in the foreseeable future in the British transfer market, I think as a public company it would have been very questionable for us to turn that offer down.

‘When you combine that with a player who says he wants to go in the first place, the two things together make it impossible to say no. There is an argument for saying we have got a certain amount of strength in the central defensive area anyway.’

Ridsdale knew only too well that many Leeds fans were angrily accusing him of selling the club’s best player. ‘But you have to take a view on whether that is actually the case or not. You could argue what we have done is cover for Woodgate for 18 months in case he was not around. Now we have got him back and we have made a healthy profit on a player we only bought as cover in the first place.’

He even pointed out the earlier case of how Leeds sold Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank, then considered the club’s best
player. ‘That raised a few people’s eyebrows but we stormed to third in the League that season without him. I don’t really want to criticise Rio because he did a great job for us. We took a big gamble when we signed him but he was great in the community, great on the field and great for England. But the reality is that he has gone and yet there are still a lot of Premiership clubs who would be happy to swap places with us when it comes to strength at the back. I’m so relaxed about that.’

The only comparable move between Leeds and Man United in recent years had involved the fiery midfielder Eric Cantona, who moved in 1992 for a bargain price of £1.2 million and then went on to inspire a decade of unrivalled United success. That was deemed to be a terrible mistake. Many Leeds fans feared the same could be said of Rio’s move to Manchester.

After hearing about Ridsdale’s attack, Rio hit back in typical fashion, saying: ‘A lot of my mates thought his comments were out of order but it’s water off a duck’s back. I can handle it. It’s time to let bygones be bygones and for him to get on with his life and me to get on with mine. He knew my feelings and I knew his. I wish he could have just left it at that. I’ve always said I respect the people at Leeds and I enjoyed my time there. But after a lot of soul searching I felt it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.’